The Democratic hypocrisy of DeLauro & Greenberg.

Rosa DeLauro: Connecticut Democratic Congresswoman. Married to Stanley Greenberg, Democratic strategist and former Clinton adviser. Both credibly linked to the biotech megacorporation Monsanto – I mention this not because I care, but it never hurts to remind the netroots that they’re brazen hypocrites when it comes to their supposed opposition to GM foods – and former landlords to then-DCCC chair (and current Chicago mayor) Rahm Emanuel. Although ‘landlord’ should really apply to people who charge rent to their tenants, I suppose – particularly when the tenant had the ability to steer fat contracts to the landlord’s polling firm. Ach, well, we’ll save that investigation for 2013. It’ll give Issa something to do after he finishes burning out the rot in the Justice Department.

Third District Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro likes the high life. The wealthy 11-term Democrat, Daily Ructions has learned, stayed this week at the ultra-posh Hotel Poseidon in Positano on the Amalfi Coast, a continent away from her battered district. Thousands in the New Haven area remain without power.

DeLauro has finally made tracks back to her ostensible home district, but remains unapologetic about taking vacation time in Italy while Irene battered it. Entertaining. You will no doubt also be entertained to hear that the Congresswoman eagerly criticized Bush for allegedly not taking Katrina seriously enough; but you have to understand that many politicians have not yet fully grasped that these minor little details can be readily looked up now.

Large scale protests / pop concerts dominated by secular Israelis are being held in Tel Aviv, Haifa and Jerusalem and will include free performances by well known artists. The protesters demand “social justice” and a more equitable economy but their exact demands are not clear.

According to an investigative report by Maariv’s Kalman Libeskind, the protests were engineered by a group of media strategists who are directed by prominent Democratic strategist Stanley Greenberg, a former adviser to Bill Clinton, John Kerry and others. Greenberg directed the strategists to create a protest that was not led by one specific group, in order to create social ferment. An unnamed left-wing leader would eventually step into this ferment and take the reins, Greenberg predicted.

So… Greenberg is attempting to destabilize a loyal ally’s political structure in order to bring about an unspecified change in leadership that might prove more ideologically suitable. Didn’t the CIA supposedly used to do this all the time in Latin America? And didn’t the Left freak out about it all the time, too? And does that mean that, starting in 2013, it’ll be OK for the CIA to start doing it again? – Because, frankly, Hugo Chavez of Venezuela is a horse’s rear end.

…which brings us right back to Congresswoman DeLauro, actually – and not just for the obvious reason. Now, I don’t particularly begrudge Members of Congress their vacations. I’ve been to Italy, myself. It’s very nice. Excellent food. Nice ruins. A surprising number of hunters with firearms, considering that it’s, well, Europe. But DeLauro made quite a bit of hay going after the White House for supposed negligence with regard to Katrina: and if Congresswoman DeLauro thinks that this would not be pointed out – or the fact that it took her a week to come back to the area – then she is, frankly, a dunderhead. Which is entirely possible: the woman’s not had to run a tough race in decades, which can be a real problem for Democrats trying to keep mentally sharp*.

I’d end up offering the pious hope that this incident will teach Congresswoman DeLauro the need to have some perspective about what elected officials can and cannot do in a crisis, but if she had the self-awareness needed to understand that lesson then she probably would have stopped her husband from playing Ugly American games in Israel.

*The GOP, fortunately, can always count on the regular media to be there, patiently waiting for a sufficiently-serious mistake. Which is one reason why I don’t get too exercised over media bias: sure, it kills Republican careers.